"Mandariinid" - a review of sorts

As a family who isn't very big on that whole talking thing, we always watch a lot of movies when over at my grandparent's place in Viljandi. Recently they (my grandparents) got this new thingy on their telly called NutiTV, which inter alia has this thing called the Film Shelf, where you can watch movies for free (well given how much the whole NutiTV thing costs, it ain't that free). It is however very convenient for our stoic family and so on the first Christmas holiday we all sat down and chose a movie.

The first movie on the "shelf" was "Mandariinid" (or "Tangerines" if you're not one of us Estonians). It is an Estonian movie, that came out a bit over a year ago. It has been selected as the Estonian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, making the January Shortlist. It is also among the five nominated films at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards for best foreign language film (copied this part from Wikipedia lol). Knowing that I went into the film with quite high expectations, it had made the bloody Oscars list ffs.

I can only say, that I was not disappointed. The movie takes place in the 1990s in Georgia, the Abkhazia region, where an Estonian man named Ivo is staying to harvest his crops of tangerines. One day there is a bloody conflict right at his door in which two wounded man from either sides of the conflict get left behind. Ivo takes them in and practically saves their lives.

Although the film is very related to war, it talks more about humans and emotions and mostly about emotions that are more important than the war and the feuds going on. In addition to the emotional plot the film has very many very very very nice nature shots. Being a bit of a cinematography nerd (*khmmkhmm* camera angles are my main thing) I really enjoyed how the movie was filmed. Also the soundtrack was amazing and fitted the scenes perfectly.

All in all it was a very nice experience, the actors were marvelous, I cried (what isn't a big surprise as I cry at almost every movie that has anything sad in it at all) and the nature shots were top notch. 10/10 from me, the supreme movie critic.

Til next time,
Ingrid